Yup, this is agony alright - 38%

What is similar about Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, Nickleback and The Agonist? They all make music that is an embarrassment to Canada. Their promotional pictures show that the band consists of one very attractive goth girl and three guys trying way too hard to look serious. But can we take them seriously? The simple answer is no. We can't take anyone who makes such bad music seriously. This band sounds exactly the same as every other generic metalcore band that scene kids love to worship.

After listening to the whole album, I have a sneaking suspicion that I have just listened to the same song over and over. But I will never know. There is not enough substance to the songs to actually tell them apart. The guitarist really likes to play those annoying start-stop metalcore riffs. Just listen to any metalcore album and you will know what I'm talking about. There is a lot of generic down tuned chugging as well. It seems as if the guitar was down tuned so it would sound more heavy. They fail miserably in this respect. He can down tune his guitar as much as he likes, it won't make up for the generic riffs. Another thing that really annoys me about the guitar is that the guitar player keeps playing what is equivalent of pig squeals. It does nothing for the songs except for making them even more annoying to listen to.

The Agonist uses both harsh and clean vocals. For the harsh vocals she tries just about every technique known to metal. She did produce a decent death growl once or twice, but she manages to botch everything else. Her clean vocals aren't horrible, but they have been done to death by bands that sound exactly like The Agonist. They kind of sound like Evanescence mixed with Paramore. Yeah, I did say they weren't horrible. But they're not exactly the best I've ever heard. The main problem I have with her clean singing is there is absolutely no variety. They sound the same in every song.

While as a whole, this album is terrible and generic, some moments are worse than others. The weirdest thing about this album is that the lyrics are good. Besides a few immature lines, the lyrics bring up a lot of problems with modern society and uses morbid imagery in an effective way. It is a shame they are wasted on such a bland and annoying album. There are only two moments on this record that I actually enjoy. They are both acoustic interludes. One is the song "Chiaroscuro" and the other is found in the second half of "Void of Sympathy." They give the listener a much needed break from the relentlessly generic metalcore. They provide some nice melodies and atmosphere, something the rest of the album doesn't even come close to achieving.

If for whatever reason, you still want to give this album a chance, just look up the song "Forget Tomorrow" on YouTube and you will know at once how awful this album is. This album really serves no other purpose than being a masturbation aid for scene kids. No self respecting metal fan would be caught dead listening to this. This album isn't worth your time and it is certainly not worth a cent of your money.